This is a special report from Ahmed Siddiqui, the developer of Go Go Mongo, who just returned from the MobileBeat 2011 Conference in San Francisco. In this overview he highlights industry trends discussed at the conference. If you comment on areas of most interest, we can continue these posts as a follow-up series for more in-depth discussion. Let’s take it from the top…
I just returned from the MobileBeat/GamesBeat 2011 Conference in San Francisco (http://events.venturebeat.com/mobilebeat2011/), and I must say that this was probably one of the most enlightening conferences I’ve ever been to. Being a mobile game developer for kids educational games, I felt that this was the perfect venue to learn about what is new and hot. I went into the conference knowing that many things won’t directly apply to me as I am building games for such a niche audience, but I walked out really re-thinking my business model and knowing that I need to shift fast or I will be left in the dust.
There is way too much content to cover in a single blog post, so I would like to separate this into multiple posts, so I can explain the key points and also give a perspective on what this means for mobile app/game developers in the kids space and for parents.
10 trends we need to be watching:
- Apple threw down the hammer on incentivized downloads. I’m referring to companies such as Tapjoy that allowed developers to quickly rise to the top of the app store rankings by paying people to download their apps. With this being limited by Apple, how can kids game developers take advantage of this and start promoting using different media channels such as mobile ads, cross promoting, Facebook, and Twitter? More info on this: http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/13/tapjoy-ceo-apple/
- Freemium (download the game for free, and then pay for upgrades such as additional levels, or virtual goods like hats for the characters in the game), what is working and what isn’t, and is this the only way to go? What are the ethics behind this when incorporating this into a kids game?
- Video ads are now getting even more and more sophisticated. Is this a revenue opportunity for us? What does it mean in terms of user interface, and how best do we integrate it into our apps/games? How safe are these for kids to watch?
- App discovery and distribution challenges. What are the best way for parents to find the best games for their kids?
- How can we use analytics (tracking how a game is used, how long it is played, which levels/items are most popular in the game) to make our games/apps better? What are the child privacy implications to this?
- The use of subscriptions in kids games. Its not just for magazines!
- Near-field Communications (NFC), it is here and will it be accepted universally? Paypal announced today that now you will be able to simply tap two phones together to make payments. What other innovations can come out of this, especially for kids games? More info on this: http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/13/paypal-android-nfc/
- iOS/Android/Windows Phone 7 – What is making money, and what is a distraction? How can us independent developers build a multi-platform strategy? Do build-once, deploy many tools work? How is HTML 5 going to change the way we program our apps/games?
- The Cloud! What the heck is it, and what are the features/capabilities we should be expecting in the near future? A prediction was made during the conference stating that gaming consoles are dead. The cloud is now fast enough to provide graphics/gaming that rivals the Playstation 3. What does this mean for the gaming industry and for mobile developers? More info on this: http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/12/gamesbeat-2011-trip-hawkins/
- Disrupting the traditional school system with games and edutainment. The father of video games, Nolan Bushnell makes some bold predictions about how the traditional education system is going to change with video games. More info on this: http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/13/nolan-bushnell-aims-to-disrupt-schools-with-edutainment/
Which topics are you interested in hearing about first? Any additional thoughts as I write out these articles?
Written by Ahmed Siddiqui, the founder of Go Go Mongo – the healthy eating game for children on iOS. Website: www.gogomongo.com, iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/go-go-mongo-lite/id434278787?mt=8
This sounds super interesting! Thanks for sharing. I’m interested in all of the information but primarily the use of subscriptions in kids games.
Can’t wait!
Thanks,
basho
Thank you very much for the write up. I found all topics of interest and can’t decide to f aver one.
Hi,
Apart from your list of questions, I’d be interested to know what was sais at the Conference. Could you sum it up in upcoming posts?
This is concerning. The biggest issue for developers of children’s educational apps is how well the emerging field understands children’s learning and development and how you design in ways that support that. There is still so much work to be done there – where are the education, early childhood and developmental psych experts on your development teams.
Great idea this article series – but worry less about sales and more about quality apps. The product needs to be right for sustainability.
Cheers Dan.
Great stuff… I am particularly interested in:
#2. Freemium – What works and what doesn’t?
#4. App discovery and distribution challenges – Are the kids actually discovering new games apart from in-app advertising, or is it their parents who are discovering this by interacting with their friends with kids?
What a fantastic article. It’s worth reading. Thank you for sharing this informative content; I appreciate your post. It has also helped a lot of start-ups develop apps.